A little over four years ago my younger sister became very ill almost overnight. She has always been a very active athletic playing every sport imaginable. What seemed to surely be a virus soon proved to be much bigger. The doctors were perplexed and seemed to be almost guessing. Everything from a brain lesion to the C word cancer was given as options. Doctors would receive a referral and want to see her as she was a barely watching question mark. 53 doctors to date have evaluated my sister and that number might be a little low. As I stated in my earlier essay my mother was a single parent for a great deal of time. While during this time she attempted to save for our college funds on a school teacher’s income and spotty child support. …show more content…
Between the lost income to the monthly pharmacy costs that can sometimes reach $500 a month depending on where we are at in our insurance calendar year. I do not want to add one ounce of worry to my parent’s plate. They are both hardworking and very prideful people. My step dad works every hour of overtime he is allowed which can mean a 7 day work week while my mom tutors as well as works a part time retail job along with teaching Special Education. They have raised my sister and I to know that there is no fear in hard work. I too have been a working high school student at our local baroque restaurant. Late nights and early mornings have taught me that I need a college education to live a comfortable lifestyle and I am willing to work hard to reach this goal. My greatest joy would be for me to give back to the people that worked and sacrificed so much for my sister and me. Although my parents never planned to be in financial need at this point of their lives nor did they ever image they would have to fight so hard to keep their child alive. With my sisters diagnoses the doctors have referred to her being a one in a million in a not so positive manner. In my mind my family is a one in a million and because of this I will do what is necessary to carry on this tradition of hard work and
The struggles Cecelia faced as a single mother working to complete a degree and support herself and her son did strike a familiar tone with me. Although I did raise my daughter as a single mother in California for almost six years, unlike Cecelia I was well employed, had completed my bachelor’s degree, and was in my thirties. Even so I also struggled more than occasionally with bias against my status as a single mother, albeit a successful professional, and the unanticipated ways this affected my daughter. There were clear biases evinced by teachers, child care workers, doctors, childless friends and coworkers, who all believed that they had not only the right to judge my d...
... dollars aside from now until your future children determine if they would like to attend college or not. Is the ten dollars a week going to be worth it and are you going to be done paying for your college education as well? In the article, “America’s Most Overrated Product: The Bachelor’s Degree”, author Marty Nemko informs readers on aspects that are not commonly considered when pursuing higher education. Encourage that child to explore all of their options and inform them on not only the positive things you acquired from experiencing higher education, but the hidden down falls you dealt with like managing work loads and paying off debts. A student should be passionate about what they are learning and although it may not be in a classroom setting, sometimes choosing the path less traveled and not attending college can be the most rewarding experience known to man.
single mother was tough for her. She struggled day to day just to have dinner on the table for us every night. After many years of struggling my mom finally acquired a good, well paying job. My mom was now making about $11 an hour. This is still less than what the Economic Policy Institut...
My parents are two of the most hardworking people I know. Although a college dropout, my father is now an engineer at the Boeing Company, while my mother ran a well-known daycare until I started high school. My parents had decided to homeschool my three siblings and me a little after I was born, and to do so, they had no qualms about sacrificing time, money, or respect. When I entered ninth grade, my parents chose to close my mother’s daycare to better homeschool my siblings and me, which meant my father had to then single-handedly support our family of six.
Steve Cohen shows the disparity between the rising cost of college and a family’s capability to afford it. Cohen explains “Tuition has risen almost 1,200 percent in the last 35 years, and the sticker price for many four-year private colleges and out-of-state public universities exceeds $250,000.” Moreover, he goes on to say that even at public universities, it is about $80,000 for four years for tuition and other college related expenses. Later in his article, Cohen explains how this leaves middle-class families in a very uncomfortable situation. The parents or other money-making entities in the household want their student to go to college and earn a degree, but now there can be an element of stress in figuring out how the fees will be paid for. Furth...
Single mothers also find that they often aren’t having their need met at their institutions. Despite the fact that student parents are more likely to receive federal tuition assistance in the form of Pell Grants than non-parents, (43 percent and 23 percent respectively) the average unmet financial need of student parents after all aid is still high. Single student parents have an average annual unmet need of $6,117 compared to $3,650 for non-parent students (Nelson,
As the youngest of five children she was often overlooked. The pride of the family often overrode the opportunity to receive health care, handouts and a decent chance to become something. My mother spent her childhood in a tiny house with her family and many relatives. She was never given the opportunities to excel in learning and life like my generation has. My grandfather was a carpenter and on that living fed many hungry mouths. But despite this already unfortunate lifestyle my mother maintained good grades and was on a path to overcoming her misfortune.
My family’s financial situation has had the greatest effect on my education. The issues began after my parent’s separation left our budget in ruins. Even on our best days, my parents low economic status made money a tense topic. As an example, I have a desire to participate in many extracurricular activities, but my parents told me that there wasn’t enough money to make these experiences happen. Despite the fact that I lack the opportunities like these that some of my peers have had, I remain determined to pursue higher education to become an obstetrician. I have learned that finances cannot push my dreams away, and I am taking every step
2. Dowd, Nancy. In Defense Of Single Parent Families. New York: New York University, 1997
My name in is Sanger Rainsford and I am applying to work at the anti-hunting support group for animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). I have the passion to advocate for those animals that are hunted on a daily basis by humans. Animals don't have the voice to say their feelings, so I will. I am able to understand first hand both the hunter and the hunted’s perspectives.I am able to see both sides because I was a hunter, I loved it in fact. But, I was also hunted. And I hated being the hunted.
Perusing to obtain a college degree in engineering surely will not be a simple task. Yet, I have clashed with arduous challenges and hardships throughout my life. One issue I continually face is facing the battle of financial assistance, which will continue to grow throughout my years at college. Dealing with economic hardships didn’t affect me critically until after sixth grade when my parents divorced. It wasn’t only troublesome to deal with this fact on an emotional spectrum, but also in a financial perspective. My older sister, my younger brother, and I had to accept the fact that money will influence our everyday lives. We had to use food stamps for our groceries, had to withdraw from the amount of sports we could play, as well as the places we could go. Our mother had to enroll back into college (at the University of Akron) so she could afford to live a decent life while raising three kids.
My mom, Luann was born in 1958 to an Italian immigrant mother and a second-generation Italian father. From the time my mom was twelve, she not only worked, but worked in order to provide for her family. She held several jobs at once, and by the time she was sixteen she was regularly grocery shopping and preparing meals for her family. My grandmother, a seamstress whom held a business out of their home was often too busy working and placed her former duties of cooking and cleaning for the family on my mom. In comparison to my mom, I often worked on the weekends and spent the forty or fifty dollars I made that weekend on food and gas for myself. It was not until I began college that I began giving the majority of my money to my parents in order to help pay for my schooling. In addition, and unlike my dad, my mom was very invested in her schooling. By the time she was seventeen she had enrolled at William Patterson and commuted daily so that she could continue working a full-time job. Moreover, a major difference from that of my mother’s childhood and mine is the difference in college tuition. While my parents are currently paying upwards of twenty-five thousand a year for me to attend college, my mom spent no more than three or four thousand annually. Therefore, she is always quick to tell me of how she never took out a loan and paid out of pocked without her parent’s
As a single mom with four children, I realize the importance of setting a good example for my children. It is difficult trying to instill in them how vital a college education is for their future when I lacked one myself. So making the decision to earn a college degree was easy. The hard part was deciding what area to focus on for a degree, what type of school I wanted to attend and where I saw myself in the future.
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I believe that last time we spoke was in August of 2016. Wow, been that long, yet it feels like just yesterday we were laughing at each other dancing. I write to you to finally settle this once and for all because it seems to have just lingered into tension. You broke me; you caused me to forget how to love. Since the day I met you I was never the same; I became different. It started right at that party for our team when I decided to play air hockey against you; that’s where it all began. From that moment I was trapped in a prison of pain. The pain of never being enough for you; a pain of every decision I made caused disappointment in your eyes. You controlled me every action, emotion, and thought. I guess love
A simple event can turn a person’s life upside down for the better or for the worse. It can maybe even go as long as changing lives forever or changing lives as short as 30 minutes. There was a time that an event in my life impacted me as a person. This experience was not one to forget.